Postgame Quotes: Revolution 1, Wizards 0

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION HEAD COACH STEVE NICOL
We had a couple of chances as well we didn’t take. I don’t remember them having a real clear chance. So we have to be happy with that … and it’s a win.

We had some balls in the box that the two center backs dealt with. We’ve got to be happy. It’s good to win at home. We like to win the last game – it sends everybody away with a smile on their face. But we certainly made it hard as usual. We never seem to coast to victory …

I thought (Bobby Shuttleworth) was solid as a rock. He came and caught the ball. His position was good and any time they did get some shots off, it went straight into his hands and that’s good positional play. He was solid as a rock.

We’ve talked about making bad decisions that have cost us during the season. And tonight we made good decisions as far as being in good positions to deal with balls in the box or whatever they threw at us.

I think we can do better. That final ball has to be better. Sainey (Nyassi) has got a lot of attributes and if you’re playing fullback against him, you’re thinking, “Well, here we go.” But he needs to get better. He needs to make better decisions with his final ball. If he can do that, he’ll step up another level.

I just think that, not that pressure is off because we always put pressure on them to work hard and play well. But the fact that there was no real pressure on us to win games make it easier to play. What we have to do is take that into next season and try and play like that when it really, really matters. But at the same time, you’ve still got to do it and they did have some good combinations. I think we could have a whole lot more if we were just better with the final ball.

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION MIDFIELDER SHALRIE JOSEPH
I think we showed a lot of heart, we defended well as a team, and we got that early goal from me. Chris (Tierney) played me a great ball over the top and I just tried to head it around the goalkeeper and finish that goal. The team showed a lot of heart, and that’s what’s so frustrating about this team that we can be up one-nothing … and when we are on the road, we’re 2-0 up and we give away goals. We’ve still got a lot of growing to do, and tonight we showed that we can stay as a team and work hard.

I noticed in the first five minutes that he was coming off of his line, and a lot of guys on the sides gave me a heads up to try to shoot it from the half-way line. Chris (Tierney) just played a great ball, I ran onto it and it was all about my finishing.

It has to do a little bit with our youth, maturity and out lack of experience, but we showed that we have a lot of heart and character on the team. 2011 is going to be a good season and we have to look forward it. It’s all about growing from here and getting better as a team. We’ve got to learn from our mistakes.

We have a lot of youth here, and if we get it together and get that chemistry down, we’re going to be one of those teams that’s going to be fun to watch … and one of the teams to go back to the MLS Cup.

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION GOALKEEPER BOBBY SHUTTLEWORTH
I didn’t have to make many saves tonight. I thought the back four was really solid. But we picked a lot of second balls up and, I thought we stayed pretty tight on our guys. I thought we were really good at marking throughout the box so.

Obviously we knew they were going to go for the win, they needed it for the playoffs. It’s good to play spoiler, you know? We have an effect on what goes on this week throughout the league.

I try to help these guys as much as I can, screaming at them, letting them know when a runner’s coming through and all that. If I can help them out in any way, then I’m obviously making their jobs easier and my job easier.

Those two guys are great. Matty (Reis) has been awesome. Preston (Burpo) this year has been great. Those two guys have been in the league forever. They know how to train, how to play, and whenever they can help me, they’ve been trying to help me, which is fantastic.

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION DEFENDER SETH SINOVIC
They were in a position where they needed to win to stay in the playoff hunt and we knew that we had to try to match their energy coming into this game. They’ve got a lot of big, strong forwards up top with a lot of pace, so we just tried to stick with them as much as we could and put the pressure on when we could.

We’ve just got to try to keep fighting and keep possession as much as possible. As long as we keep in our spots and stay with our assignments, we’ll be in good shape. And when players like Chris (Tierney) and Shalrie (Joseph) put a good combination like that together and finish one, it’s always good for us.

We’ve been disappointed in the way the year has gone and we really wanted to finish on a strong note and see if we can carry it into the next year. I think we’ve done that – we’ve got one more game and hopefully we can get another win and hopefully take that into next year.

(Bobby Shuttleworth) was unbelievable. He was very vocal while we were out there – always talking to us, always trying to get ourselves in the right positions and came out really strong on some crosses, so I thought he played well tonight.

KANSAS CITY WIZARDS HEAD COACH PETER VERMES
I thought the first 20 minutes were really good … It was a good play by Shalrie (Joseph), but it was more of a mental mistake on our part. It came from deep in the midfield; it was a straight ball up the middle of the field and our two central defenders both weren’t paying attention at the time - or at least weren’t concentrating on the action - and he did well to finish it. We just had a miscommunication there in the back. Outside that, I think we created enough chances throughout the course of the game to be in the game if not walk away with the points. My credit to New England - they fought hard and played hard.

I think there was just a little bit more sense of urgency because we were down one goal and we needed to get back into the game. I really think we didn’t give up too much to them in the second half. There was one very good shot where we had a really good save. Outside of that I thought we created a couple of clear chances that we should have actually put away, but we didn’t have the final touch on the ball.

Well, now that we are out I think it’s more just of us making sure that we finish with some pride and in our last game just come away with three points because we are at home.

KANSAS CITY DEFENDER MATT BESLER
We put a lot into it. We knew we had to win the game to keep our playoff hopes alive and we didn’t get the job done.

I guess you can look around and say we didn’t give up at all for the 95-plus minutes we were pushing to win the game. We created chances toward the very end and I guess we kept fighting for it. So I guess that’s about the only positive.

Obviously we gave up one, so we’d like to change that.

We’re going to go out and win the game, our last game. We’re not in [the playoffs] so I guess we’re playing for pride now. We’re going to end the season on a high.

KANSAS CITY MIDFIELDER JACK JEWSBURY
It’s obviously disappointing for us. We knew we had to win to give ourselves a chance for the playoffs. I thought the guys put in a good effort for the full 90. Obviously, a disappointing goal to give up. We definitely wanted to get that first goal and let them know that we were going to come the full game. But, unfortunately, they got the first one and we just could never find the back of the net.

It’s easy to look back and say that you’d finish every chance you get. It’s one of those things where I think we could have done better obviously on their goal and kept it tied. Anytime you go down a goal and knowing you’ve got to come back and win on the road is going be tough. So I think the concentration on not giving one up would have been important, because we knew getting that first goal is huge in any MLS game. I think if you look around the league it’s very important and it ends up being a deciding factor in a lot of games. So that was the disappointing part for us.

It’s a home game, we’re going to go out in front of our fans and hopefully put on a good show. I think everyone knows that there’s not much in it for us in terms of the playoff hopes - we’re obviously out of that race. But this group has a lot of pride and we know we’re going to out and look for a W to end the season on a good note.